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Stick Shift’s Top Five New Cars of 2013

In an era when even basic entry-level vehicles are shockingly competent and sophisticated, being required to drive and review the world’s fastest, rarest, most luxurious, and most expensive cars is not exactly something about which it is fair to complain. But in years like the one that is just wrapping up, when we were given the chance to get behind the wheel of more than five dozen of these vehicles—a slim majority of which were worthy of accolades and life-list awards—we wish to inform you that it can be difficult to pick favorites.

But for the fifth year running, we have risen to the challenge.

Herewith, in no particular order, please find our wholly subjective selections for the five best new cars we drove in 2013.

Jaguar F-Type

We have the opposite of a soft spot for Jaguar’s first proper sports car in 40 years. It has the good sense to be an extraordinarily handsome, richly appointed, spectacularly capable predator, with a deliciously incorrigible exhaust note. Is there an impairment listed in the DSM-5 for people who beg to be ravaged by a growling 3,700-pound cat? If so, we have that. Read more about it here.

Photo: Photograph by Brett Berk.

BMW 328i/328d x-Drive Sport Wagon

It is no secret that we love the taut shape and practicality of smallish luxury wagons. Neither is it a secret that we are fans of the special sauce in which BMW marinates their vehicles to provide them with a unique sporting slickness. And we have loudly broadcast our obsession with the power and efficiency offered by contemporary turbocharged gasoline and diesel engines. So it should not surprise you that this wagon, which combines all of these features in a single perfect package, should delight us to no end, and make this list. Read more about it here.

Photo: Photograph by Brett Berk.

Cadillac CTS

Cadillac continues its spectacular modern winning streak with this all-new entry in the competitive midsized luxury market. And it succeeds, blissfully, by out-Germaning the Germans, creating a car that is more engaging to drive than the BMW 5-Series, more stolid than the Mercedes E-Class, and more forward-looking than the Audi A6. If you’re in the market for a fancy sedan and you don’t test-drive—and buy—this car, you are making a terrible mistake. Read more about it here.

Photo: Photograph by Brett Berk.

Range Rover Autobiography

Average people can shuttle themselves and their friends and progeny around in competent luxury S.U.V.’s like the Mercedes GL or Cadillac Escalade. We elect to engage solely with superlatives. And this leather, wool, wood, and aluminum super-brick is just that. It is more capable than the entire Marvel back catalogue, more coddling than a Park Slope parent, and more handsomely recumbent than Don Draper sipping Canadian Club in a Danish-modern armchair. If we’re going to pick any sport-utility vehicle to ferry about our poseur selves, it’s going to be one that can truly deliver all of the goods. Read more about it here.

Photo: Photograph by Brett Berk.

Aston Martin Rapide S

There are $200,000 ultra-luxury sports sedans that are faster and grippier than the Aston Martin Rapide S. There are also competitors within this limited category that are more practical, more efficient, and more technologically sophisticated. But we’ve driven all of those cars, and none of them has the indeterminate, seductive, pheromonal allure of this snub-nosed bullet. On occasion, we actually fall in love with a car, and we fell in love with this one. As jaded as we are, that’s saying something. Read more about it here.

Photo: Photograph by Brett Berk.

Jaguar F-Type

We have the opposite of a soft spot for Jaguar’s first proper sports car in 40 years. It has the good sense to be an extraordinarily handsome, richly appointed, spectacularly capable predator, with a deliciously incorrigible exhaust note. Is there an impairment listed in the DSM-5 for people who beg to be ravaged by a growling 3,700-pound cat? If so, we have that. Read more about it here.

Photograph by Brett Berk.

BMW 328i/328d x-Drive Sport Wagon

It is no secret that we love the taut shape and practicality of smallish luxury wagons. Neither is it a secret that we are fans of the special sauce in which BMW marinates their vehicles to provide them with a unique sporting slickness. And we have loudly broadcast our obsession with the power and efficiency offered by contemporary turbocharged gasoline and diesel engines. So it should not surprise you that this wagon, which combines all of these features in a single perfect package, should delight us to no end, and make this list. Read more about it here.

Photograph by Brett Berk.

Cadillac CTS

Cadillac continues its spectacular modern winning streak with this all-new entry in the competitive midsized luxury market. And it succeeds, blissfully, by out-Germaning the Germans, creating a car that is more engaging to drive than the BMW 5-Series, more stolid than the Mercedes E-Class, and more forward-looking than the Audi A6. If you’re in the market for a fancy sedan and you don’t test-drive—and buy—this car, you are making a terrible mistake. Read more about it here.

Photograph by Brett Berk.

Range Rover Autobiography

Average people can shuttle themselves and their friends and progeny around in competent luxury S.U.V.’s like the Mercedes GL or Cadillac Escalade. We elect to engage solely with superlatives. And this leather, wool, wood, and aluminum super-brick is just that. It is more capable than the entire Marvel back catalogue, more coddling than a Park Slope parent, and more handsomely recumbent than Don Draper sipping Canadian Club in a Danish-modern armchair. If we’re going to pick any sport-utility vehicle to ferry about our poseur selves, it’s going to be one that can truly deliver all of the goods. Read more about it here.

Photograph by Brett Berk.

Aston Martin Rapide S

There are $200,000 ultra-luxury sports sedans that are faster and grippier than the Aston Martin Rapide S. There are also competitors within this limited category that are more practical, more efficient, and more technologically sophisticated. But we’ve driven all of those cars, and none of them has the indeterminate, seductive, pheromonal allure of this snub-nosed bullet. On occasion, we actually fall in love with a car, and we fell in love with this one. As jaded as we are, that’s saying something. Read more about it here.